Blooded Feathers
by AnonymousBystander
Summary: A Demon is sent to kill Dante, but not just any Demon...an Ancient. When she reveals that she's seeking revenge for a murder that Dante apparently committed, Virgil is the first suspect that comes to his mind. But is he really behind it?
1. An unexpected visitor

I don't own 'em, I'm just borrowin 'em.

For any serial AnonymousBystander readers, upon reading this, you may be struck with deja vu.

So to answer any questions, _Yes_ this _is_ the story that is being "written" in "**I hate it when you two fight**". Though somewhat... finished.

* * *

Abdiel's redemption draws a lot on the story of John Milton's "Paradise Lost". It uses the events that are alluded to in the beginning of the first book; (Cue: _Very_ condensed summary) 

In Heaven, Saetan was created by God; he was God's right hand, overcome with a lust for God's power. When God the Son was created (To be known as Jesus on Earth) Saetan's jealousy peaked. Then in Heaven, Saetan managed to do something that, until then, God the Father could only do; create life. From his head, fully formed, sprung his beautiful daughter - Sin.

Saetan roused an army of angels and together they staged a revolution against God the Father. In the battle was the Archangel Michael, God's warrior and God the Son. It was God the Son that sent the rebelling angels to Hell.

Once in Hell, Saetan began planning his revenge, during that time having a son by his daughter Sin; Death. During his fathers absence to the garden of Eden, Death raped his mother/sister, giving birth to the hellhounds that guarded the gates of Hell with her.

Ouch.

I'm sorry if this is an extremely brief version of Milton's construction of events about the angels fall, but it's very complicated. Upon reading the story, I immediately felt a deep sympathy for Sin. After all, she was thrown into an Unholy battle that she didn't ask for, she had a son by her _father_, and was then raped by her son. Then, she seemingly disappears from the whole story.

How unfair!

So I decided to use her as a basis for my story, chuck in a few demonic zombies for good measure, and get Dante to solidly kick Deaths' incestuous arse, giving him the death that I felt he deserved.

God, I love what I do.

I also changed around things a bit, making Sin the lover of Belial - one of the demons ruling under Saetan, also twisting the story to reveal her as the Archangel Abdiel. Who, according to "Paradise Lost" was taken with the urge to go against God's wishes, however at the last minute remaining loyal to God. In my version, to put it simply, she doesn't - she chooses to follow her lover Belial to Hell.

Besides, Abdiel is _such_ a girls' name!

* * *

Dante shuddered as a small stream of water trickled down his back. Why had it not crossed his mind to buy a building with a verandah? Even from the street, Devil May Cry looked cold, dark and uninviting. 

Why was it that creepy-crawlies chose cold, wet and moonless nights to stalk around the city? Particularly a certain breed of blood-fetished puppets that shall remain nameless...

"Marris..." He growled, "Why is it always the Marris?"

Despite numb fingers and wringing wet clothes, Dante pushed his key into the lock of DMC. Pushing the door open, he was greeted with the scent of home - old dishes and dust. He shut the door firmly behind him and dropped his bag of ammo next to the doormat.

He walked through to the the part of the building where he actually lived, shedding clothes like a snake shedding skin. He kicked off his boots into the living room. (Of course, being full of water, the spray went everywhere.) He really had to clean this place up sometime. It was starting to look like... well... a tip. He shrugged to himself - his large red coat slid off his broad shoulders and he caught it as it slid down his arms, flopping it on the banister of the stairs to dry. He trudged up the stairs; cold, wet and irritated, but feeling lighter.

He was momentarily surprised when he saw the black cat sitting on the top of the stairway. Momentarily. He continued his trudge up the stairs; this cat had been mysteriously appearing in DMC for the past two months or so and nothing bad had happened so far. He'd figured it must have been a stray or something... either that or it liked his piles of mess.

"Fine." He muttered as he stepped over it, "Stay. I'm not going to break anything else throwing it at you. Shed all you want, but I'm going to bed."

It looked up at him with huge green lamp-like eyes and blinked.

"Merrow?"

Stopping Dante kicked it lightly out of the way,

"Now buzz off before I change my mind."

It jumped nimbly on the banister and started walking gracefully down the stairs, where it landed gently on its feet. Both Dante and the cat, freakishly at the same moment, stretched and yawned, then the cat curled up on the worn couch and closed it's eyes.

Dante could feel his muscles stiffening as he took off his shoulder holster and let it clunk to the floor of his bedroom. He was definately going to hurt tomorrow. He saw his bed blissfully unmade and comfortable, and he let himself fall like a drunk onto the mattress. The moment his head hit the pillow, the phone rang.

"Shit." Rubbing his eyes, he rolled onto his stomach and picked up the phone, "Devil May Cry - we're closed."

"Hey Dent." Dante flinched. There was only one person who'd _dare_ to call him that...

"Trish. What lovely surprise." He _hoped_ he counded cheerful, but it was hard to sound like you enjoyed reality when you were half-dead with lethargy.

"I have a little surprise for you."

Dante groaned,

"Not now Trish."

The woman on the other end of the phone sighed,

"No, not _that_ sort of surprise. I have a body."

Silence.

"And?"

There was silence.

"A _dead_ body." She emphasised 'dead'. Usually when she did that...

"You want me to check it out." It was more a statement than a question. Ever since he'd broken up with Trish, she'd tried to find as many excuses as possible for them to 'meet'. For being so cute, she was damn clingy!

"Trish." Dante sighed and rolled onto his back, "Trish, Trish, Trish. I've just come back from a-"

"Look Dante, I frankly don't give a fuck, but I have a body here and..." She paused, "It's outta my league." She finally admitted.

Dante thought for a moment, his body savoring the precious rest that it was getting and knowing that it would probably be the last it would get for a while. He rubbed his eyes again,

"Describe it to me."

Trish took a breath.

"Um... it was a man."

"Was?"

"Was. Arms 2 and 10 O'clock, legs 12 and 3-"

"What? How-"

"Head 7 O'clock-"

"Wait a minute. What the hell are you talking about?" Dante leant on one elbow on the mattress, fully alert now.

"He was ripped apart Dante, and from the look on his face... he was enjoying it."

Dante plonked back down on the pillows and groaned again,

"Ok. You win. I'll come down."

"Oh, and we have a witness."

"A wit-... Jesus." Dante rolled off the bed and picked up his shoulder holster, "Give me ten minutes."

Walking down the stairs, he picked up the damp clothes that he'd discarded earlier.

"I hate Mondays." He noticed that the cat was gone. Apparently it had decided to make it a short stay and left. Dante grumbled to himself as he slammed the door shut behind him,

"I hate every day."

He hadn't needed directions; the small sense of direction in his head told him where Trish was - after all, she was a Demon, and he had a talent for finding Demons. Trish was... he'd like to say unique, but only in personality. She'd been created in the image of his mother - which was deeply disturbing since he'd been sharing a bed with her on a regular basis for a period of six months. However, that had turned out to be nothing. Once the big danger to their lives was gone, he'd finally realised just how irritating she could be 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 5 weeks a month, 12 months...

You get the picture.

He shuddered as he turned down an alleyway, then suddenly had to screech to a stop before he ran over someone. Turning the bike 90 degrees whilst braking, he shook the mist out of his head,

"Sorry Trish."

The redhead 'humph'-ed but didn't say anything other than,

"You want your body?" She jerked her head towards a pile of clothes, "There's your body. I'm outta here." She started walking towards her car. Dante frowned,

"But... the witness?"

"Just screwin' with ya." She smirked and climbed into the car. Dante could have happily throttled that little bitch, but restrained himself from chasing her down. She'd probably take it as a come-on. He instread tried to concentrate on the dead body lying on the slightly steaming cement.

Put bluntly, and graphically, he _had_ been torn apart. Limbs were all strewn akimbo and had shreds of tissue still hanging from them. The man had been in his late 30's, roughly, but did seem to have a look of ecstacy on his face; the bulge in the legless trousers confirmed the look.

So what he was dealing with was a very twisted Demon that like ripping apart her suitors whilst jerking them off. Either twisted or... original. Dante noticed the security badge on the man's arm and it suddenly clicked that he must have been guarding something. Something of extreme importance to the Demon if she had gone to this length to eliminate any witnesses.

He sighed and crounched next to the guy. He _was_ assuming that the offending Demon was a 'She'. There were very few Homosexual Demons out there, and thankfully he hadn't met any, though he had read about particular individuals...

He shivered and looked around for any sign of a key or something that would give a clue as to what he'd been guarding. The wet pavement was streaked with blood and rain. A small way from the mans... largest portion of body, was something small and... furry?

"A feather." Dante groaned. He has Limb-ala-security guard and a feather to work off. Next time he saw Trish, he'd kill her. No ifs, no buts. Truly.

He ran a hand through his hair and stood up, thinking to himself. It may have simply been a random attack; a security guard on the way home from a mall, sees a woman offering her 'services', presumes she's a prostitute and goes off alone with her then BAM. Phallocentric Sushi.

Nah. Too simple.

The alleyway looked like something out of a comicbook. With the stereotypical dumpster, newspapers trapped against the barbed wire fence, cardboard boxes lining the brick walls to the high buildings and garbage bins overflowing onto the street. For no particular reason at all, Dante noticed the name on the boxes;

_Karat Jewellers_.

He grinned. Bingo.

It was incredibly dark inside. Not that it mattered, he could see as well as if there was a private sun standing in the corner. However, there was no private sun standing in the corner... there was only a woman half-heartedly inspecting the display cases. Judging from the vibes he was getting off her... she was _so_ a Demon.

"Good evening. How can I serve you? Lead or silver?" Dante loaded his guns loudly, the clicks rang through the silent shop..

The woman looked up, strangely ageless in appearence, but beautiful. Unhumanely beautiful. How many mortal women had skin the colour of charcoal? She blinked her huge red-wine eyes and smiled, her teeth were pearly-white against her pitch-black skin.

"Ah. Thank God you're here. I think there's a man outside who needs your help."

"I think the only person who can help him now is a steamstress." Dante felt himself tense, ready to fight. Something had told him that he'd just found the artist who'd decided to make an artwork of the security guard's limbs outside. She sighed dramatically,

"I know, isn't it just terrible the sacrifices that one must make to fulfill one's duty?" She stepped forward, "Like me for instance." The light from the security lighting on the shop lit up something large behind her. Dante felt his stomach sink when he saw the smoke gracefully twirling around her.

"Not on a Monday." He groaned.

Slowly, the smoke took form and blew backwards in the breeze, revealing two enormous black feathered wings. They were shredded in places and feathers hung off the bottom feebly. The angel laughed and spread her wings, the light behind her shining through the holes in the feathers.

"I would have come yesterday, but it was the Sabbath." She laughed again, a ringing sound. Obviously she found her religious jokes funny.

"You should be careful. Blasphemy will send you to hell..." He shrugged, "Too late I guess." He fired both his guns simulatiously as she pounced like a panther. She stumbled for a moment, then the bullets fell to the ground with a small "Chink! Chink!". She smiled and raked her claws across the concrete wall. The wall was sheared like a hot knife through butter.

"You're going to have to try better than that, half-breed."

Darting to the side, she leapt off a wall clawing him across the back. He rolled away, pausing only for a moment. When he next darted around a display case, the gourges were healed. From behind the corner of a wall, the disgraced angel raised an eyebrow,

"Impressive." Dante heard the distinct sound of guns being drawn, "Fine. We'll do it your way."

What Dante couldn't understand was why exactly she was here. It wasn't very Demon-like to turn to petty thievery, nor was it Demon-like to simply attack him for no particular reason at all. Really, his reputation only went so far. Then again... she wasn't just a Demon.

The woman kicked a chair into the air, and it spun dangerously close to the case he was hiding behind. Suddenly, she ran across the wall... horizontally, leapt off and sent the chair - still spinning through the air - in his direction. Lightning-fast, he kicked it back though she momentarily blurred and dodged out of the way. As the chair smashed into pieces on the concrete wall, she looked down from the ceiling and grinned;

"Gravity... who needs it?"

They both leapt at each other again, clashing in the air. Dante hit the floor on his back, flipping up almost instantaniously. The woman landed on her hands and backflipped onto the wall, crounching there like some kind of spider.

"You have to have something better than that." Dante straightened for his regular taunting spiel, holstering the guns and drawing Force Edge, "I kill spiders that can do better than that."

"Oh really?" She reached a hand for a display case, "Can they do this?" The hundreds of tiny diamonds flew through the glass, crumbling it and ricocheted off the walls heading straight for our platinum-haired hero. With one solid sweep, he sent them back to her like a baseball player sends a baseball to the outfield. This startled her and they impacted, studding her black skin like stars in the night sky. She fell from the wall with a cry.

"I always thought diamonds were a girl's best friend." Dante said drily. Narrowing her eyes at him standing over her with Force Edge, she hissed,

"That. Wasn't. Fair."

"People in glass houses shouldn't throw diamonds."

With a snarl, she kicked out a heeled boot at him, which he swept to the side with his coat. She twisted her foot in the red leather and swept his feet from under him and he hit the ground, losing Force Edge in the process. Simultaniously they re-drew their guns, both pointed at the other.

"Go on." She dared him, "You first."

"No. I insist. Ladies first."

Neither of them moved, like a pair of black and red statues frozen in place.

"There's just one thing I'd like to know." Dante spoke, arms unmoving.

"Mmmm?"

"Are you going to jerk me off before you kill me?"

"Oh no. The guard? He was unintended. I simply meant to get your attention, cause a bit of panic. But, unfortunately, he forced my hand."

"Is that literal?"

"You see, Son of Sparda, I don't take to trying to be raped very well." She smiled devilishly. It was that smile that made it hard for Dante to decide whether she was telling the truth or not. The situation took a nasty turn. If she' _had _killed the man in self-defense... that meant that he didn't have justification for killing her.

Oh well.

"You know, for being so damn twisted, I'm surprised that you haven't bragged about who you are, yet."

"Abdiel."

"Abdiel? The angel that-"

"Turned from God's light, then at the last moment stood up to Saetan - returning therefore to God's right hand?" She finished sarcastically. "The bible is bullshit. I happily fought that oversized pompous light bulb. Though I have to admit that God the Son _was_ kind of cute... " She sighed, "I'm flattered that they'd try and uphold my name. Though I did get a little fun from getting that imbecile Kane to kill his brother."

"Then why are you here? Don't you have your own little Pandemonium to get to?" Dante's arms were starting to stiffen up.

"I'd love to go back home, but first, I have some unfinished business."

"And what would that be?"

"Killing you!" She kicked out suddenly, but he was ready for it; catching her leg and twisting it. She flipped onto her stomach, winded and he forced a knee into her back, gripping both of her wings hard. Her guns clattered out of reach.

He wings were strangely bony underneath the downy feathers. Abdiel smiled maliciously,

"Go on, Demon-slayer. Tear them out. Break them in your hands. Watch the bone glisten in the night and listen to the music of my screams... it's only Demon after all."

"Demons were once Angels, Abdiel. You're one of the first, in case you forgot."

In an amazing show of flexibility, she twisted her legs out from under him and swiped a heel across his head, rolling and pinning him.

"Thankyou for the reminder, Half-breed."

Dante noticed the pale silver tattooed marks either side of her eyes. Likewise on her shoulders and arms. She noticed him examining them.

"The marks of an angel." Abdiel said, voice full of poison, "Reversed. Our ivory skin turned ebony and our ebony marks turned ivory." She smiled, "Ironic, don't you think?"

With a surge of strength, Dante managed to throw her off him. She flipped, kicking the wall and fastening her hand around his throat.

"Nice try, half-blood."

"Why are you trying to kill _me_?" He hissed, vision going fuzzy.

"Because you killed Belial." She spat.

"What the hell are you talking about? I don't even know who Belial is, let alone kill him. Usually, I find out names before I fight someone... then I kill them."

"Lies! I saw you in Hell!"

"I haven't been to Hell for over two years."

"Prove it." She spat.

"Look at my wrist. No recent scars. To get to the inner circle requires a blood sacrifice." He twisted his fingers into her hand. Abdiel saw the unscarred flesh, then dropped him like a hot coal,

"But... but I saw _you. _I swear it was you... I was never so certain of anything in my life." She let him slide to his feet.

"Well, obviously you were mistaken." Dante massaged his neck painfully, thinking. How could it have been him? He had no memory of being to hell lately. In fact, he'd only been to hell twice, once with Trish and once after the whole episode with Lucia. He'd had to fight his brother-

His brother.

"Nero." He growled. Claws sprang from the disgraced angel's hands. She was still on a hair-trigger from the fight...

...if you assumed that the fight was over.

"What?" Abdiel eyed him distrustfully, tapping her _very_ sharp claws on a glass case. Dante stood up, Abdiel flexed her claws. She was obviously expecting him to attack her.

"I have a brother."

"Who looks exactly like you? How convenient." She drawled.

"Nero Angelo."

Dante saw the recognition dawn in her eyes.

"He's... your brother?" She looked less than impressed. Dante gritted his teeth, "He worked for Mundus... at least he did. Then I killed Mundus. If," He looked across at Abdiel, "and I stress _if_ my brother has somehow been resurrected. I need to know why he killed Belial... and what this has to do with me." He looked at Abdiel with a penetrating glare, his eyes demanding her to explain. He'd been framed for a murder he hadn't committed, and now he was stuck on the bad side of a Fallen Angel who'd watched Humans fall from grace, and encouraged Kane to kill Abel. She was fucking powerful, and it scared the shit out of him.

Not that he'd ever, _ever_ show it... or admit it.

"Belial..." Abdiel began, "Belial was about to become the next Keeper of the Gates."

"Of Hell?"

"Of the Seventh Circle. Pandemonium." She was slowly relaxing, muscle by muscle, but still relaxing. Though Dante could tell that she still didn't trust him. She continued, "Mundus was a Demon of no importance, so he was allowed to rule the outermost Circle, the First. Saetan ruled Circles 2 through 7... but, he was old and has long since faded."

"Wait a minute, you're telling me Saetan has... _died_?"

"_Faded_." Abdiel said sharply, "We all will. He is the first because he was first created by God. Beelzebub will be next, then Belial would have faded... then me."

Well, she was older than he'd expected, and even that had been pretty old. What was strange though, was that she didn't look like an ancient. He'd fought the ancient Mammon before - and had his arse appropriately kicked - but she didn't... _feel_ the same. Almost like...

Nah.

Abdiel continued, "Before he faded, he gave rule of Pandemonium to Beelzebub - who had previously been the Keeper of the Seventh Gate. Directly below him, was Belial."

"So he was in for a promotion."

"Simply put, yes... but now that he is dead..." Abdiel trailed off. Lost in thought.

Dante snapped his fingers to catch her attention. She jerked, claws springing out of her hands again.

"Relax, and tell me why this would change anything."

"Because now, Son of Sparda, _I_ am the Keeper of the Seventh Gate... and I am not as powerful as Mundus."

Dante smiled to himself,

"That's no problem. He's dead. I should know - I killed him." Abdiel returned the smile gravely,

"Is that so? Then I guess it must have been someone else who I fought at the Gate... but, gosh, he looked similar." She finished sarcastically.

"You're obviously an Ancient. So shouldn't you be able to destroy him easily?"

Abdiel darkened,

"Let's just say that the Pompous Light Bulb didn't exactly dish out power as evenly as he did life. The bible says it all; 'I am a jealous God'." She shrugged, "Though I can't remember where he said that. He wasn't happy when I was born."

"Why?"

"Because Saetan, his right-hand man, had managed to create life."

"_You're Sin?_"

"In the flesh... though somewhat older."

"And how old would that be?"

She paused. Calculating.

"Ten thousand, three hundred and eighty-five."

There was silence.

"Give or take a century or so?" Dante asked ironically.

"You should never tease a woman about her age."

"A Fallen One is not a woman."

She darkened slightly, but took a breath and ignored the comment. There was silence.

"So now what?" She asked him, "Are you going stop your brother?"

"Are you asking me for help?" Dante raised an eyebrow, amused. Sin gritted her teeth,

"Whatever your brother is doing... it can't be good. Don't you feel the least bit responsible to stop him?"

"And help a _Demon_?"

"A Fallen Angel, actually."

"Help a _disgraced_ Angel?"

"No. Stop your brother."

"Help a _Demon_ stop my brother?"

"Stop your brother... and _I_ help _you_... and I'm a Fallen Angel, not a Demon."

Dante thought for a moment. He still couldn't get over the fact that a _Demon_ was asking him for help, no matter how many ways you tried to say it. He looked around; they'd trashed the shop, though he had a sneaking suspicion that she'd disabled the alarm before she'd come in. How many Demons would be careless enough to be caught by mortal Police?

Sin was obviously rushed. She was starting to get restless. _Had_ she disabled the alarms?

"I'd appreciate an answer now, Son of Sparda. Not in another ten thousand years time."

"You disabled the alarms, right?"

"Of course! I'm evil, not an idiot." She sneered. Grinding his teeth, his mind went back to the jobs at DMC; there were none... yet. Though they had an annoying habit of appearing whenever he was out on something long and important. If he had a dollar for every job he turned down because he had been on Mallet Island...

Groaning, he put a hand over his eyes. There was no way he was going to get any sleep for the next week, was there?

"Just open the God-damned portal. The sooner this is over, the sooner I can sleep."

"Well, since you asked so nicely..." Sin waved her arms and a giant red inverted pentagram formed over her heart and expanded, moving away from her. When it reached about a 2 meter diameter, it flashed and Dante saw flashes of the scenery of Hell on the other side.

Sin grinned,

"Ground floor; barbeques, damned souls and the Sixth Circle. Alight here for the Hell Gates, Pandemonium and Beelzebub."


	2. Hell

The gates to Pandemonium were... big. Actually big was an understatement. They were huge.

"Can't you take us closer?" Dante verged on the brink of whining. He was cold, tired and sore. Hell was the last place that he wanted to be.

"No Demon, not even Saetan himself, could open a portal beyond these gates." Sin shrugged, "Security thing, I guess."

The gates, big and foeboding, blended in with the sharp, malicious landscape. Every twisted tree, every sharp obsidian rock seem put there simply to shred you to pieces. There was a slight breeze that made the black moss hanging from the branches of dead trees waft in waves, every so slightly.

Taking in the angry storm clouds that filled the space on the other side of the gate, Dante guessed that you could probably learn to call this place home...

After a few thousand years or so.

"Gee. Looks inviting." He drawled.

Sin grinned evily and motioned to the endless rows of chained mortal souls in the pits of fire. Each one screaming, though no sound came out of their mouths - their vocal chords had broken long ago.

"I'm sure any one of them would be happy to trade places with you." She picked up a rock and tossed it in one hand, "They're just so much fun sometimes." She threw it at a burning man. Hard. If they had more pitchers like her in Baseball, the ratio of dead batters would go sky high.

It hit him in the face, square, and suddenly hissed away to molten liquid. It dripped down the man's face, melting caverns and canyons in his skin. He struggled against his chains feebly, wrists showing a small glisten of bones. Then he gave up, the skin re-mending itself to perfection.

Sin picked up another rock. Dante grabbed her wrist.

"Cool it." He twisted her hand and the rock fell from her grasp. Sin shrugged and started walking towards the huge black gates, talking over her shoulder,

"He used to rape little children and murder them," She stopped at the huge lock, and Dante caught up beside her, "At the same time." She finished. She looked back at the man, disgust written on her face, "Tell me that he doesn't deserve to be treated like this."

"Animals don't deserve to be treated like this."

Sin smiled grimly,

"The people in here? They're less than animals. It's one hell of a house party."

As she concertrated on envoking them into the gates, Dante examined her again. He was fed up with trying to fight her, and she was tired of trying to fight him. So he pieced together that this was the reason behind their new-found civility towards each other. He knew that in his case, it was because he was so tired he couldn't be bothered, but _her_?

He remembered the look of disgust on Sin's face as she recalled the soul's crimes. If she was disgusted by the man's soul, wouldn't that mean that she felt compassion for the victim? Compassion? From a _Demon_? He frowned. So many things about her didn't add up. The same thought crossed his mind for the second time in an hour. It was...

...it was as if she had a _soul_.

Which was utterly rediculous. Even the question of his own soul was a hazy one. Demons were naturally born damned, without a concsience, therefore they had no souls to keep them from doing sinful things and going to Hell naturally. Sure, occasionally, you'd come across a soul like his father's - who against all odds could show compassion... even _love _- but how many of those Demons had existed... ever? Let alone in one generation? Sort of. What sort of generation could she fall into? Adam and Eve? She was older than that.

Then there was still the case of the slaughtered body-guard. She'd killed him. In his book, any Demon that kills a human gains an automatic death sentence... though now he was _helping_ her? Just what the Hell had he been thinking? He'd _have_ to kill her... just not yet; after he'd discovered just what it was that his brother was up to.

"Aha!" Sin's hands were covered in a black-red sparkle. She lightly stroked the huge black lock and it shivered, clicking open. Dante winced. Why did everything in Hell have to have sexual undertones? Was it the whole 'Lust-is-a-sin' thing?

"I just saved you 100mL of blood." Sin smiled as the gates slowly ground open. Muttering to himself, Dante resumed his black thundercloud mood.

"Whoop-de-fucking-doo."

By themselves, the gates swung shut behind them, locking again firmly. Strangely, it resembled the sound of a prision door being locked after a prisoner. Now why did that image come to mind?

Suddenly, from his peripheral vision, a huge black snake darted out from a tumbling building. Drawing Alastor quickly, he severed the head. It fell to the ground with a thunk. Thoroughly awake again, Dante sighed,

"That wasn't so hard."

"Are you really that sure of yourself?" Sin was unimpressed as she walked over to the body of the snake. It's scales were the colour of night... in fact, they matched Sin's skin. Dante suddenly realised that the head was travelling backwards to the body again. It reconnected, then the snake shook itself and reformed into a man, with equally as black skin as Sin.

Another Fallen Angel. Great.

"Well _hello_ brother." Sin snarled. "I should have expected to see you crawling on your belly in the dirt."

Death grinned,

"Nice to see you too, sister."

"So this what they call a heartwarming family reunion," Dante grinned, "Great."


	3. Truce

Safely back in DMC, Dante was still wondering whether showing his home to an Ancient was a good idea. After all, he couldn't begin to guess what she'd do _after_ he'd stopped his brother from doing whatever it was that he was doing. Would she get promoted again? Would she sell him out to Beelzebub for more power?

He was beginning to think that this wasn't such a good idea. On the other hand. He'd always thought that he thought too much anyway. Fatigue wasn't helping either. Besides, he was going to kill her after this anyway, so it didn't really matter. Still...

... a sudden gasp from Sin reminded him of the fact that the Ancient was still in need of assistance. Sin was attempting to sit on the edge of the old couch in his living room. She relaxed for a moment, able to relish the fact that she was in a position where she wasn't getting the muscles of the back shredded. Dante closed a hand over one of the feathers and yanked it out. She yelped,

"What the Hell was that for!" She demanded.

"No reason." He pulled out another one.

"What the fuck are you doing?"

"Helping you."

"Helping me?" Sin looked confused.

"It's called humanity. There's not much of it in Hell."

"Ugh!" Sin jerked at the slight touch. Faster than lightning, Dante grabbed her wrist,

"Keep. Still."

She grimaced, but held her arm still. After a moment, she laughed.

"What?" He looked up from her arm.

"Barely three hours ago, we were fighting to kill each other." She half-smiled, "This wasn't exactly what I was expecting."

"That makes two of us." He pulled out a shard of metal from her skin. The bright silver metal glittered like a moon against the black of her skin. She hissed and jerked again. Dante wrapped an arm around her waist, keeping her still.

"Move and it will do more damage than it already has." He growled irritably.

"You sound like someone's mother."

"Not your mother?" He pulled out another silver feather. She gritted her teeth,

"I don't have a mother." Looking into the distance, she seemed to looker sadder, "A brother and father." She smiled sarcastically, "The unholy trinity."

Silence.

"Death?" Dante asked quietly.

"Why do you think I was so happy to see him die?"

"The Hellhounds?"

Sin almost laughed,

"I managed to kill them a long time ago."

Dante noticed for the first time, the off-black scars around her waist. Bite marks, like the fangs of a dog, but jagged and torn. They ran unevenly down her lower back and disappeared under her belt. The silver tattooed markings that swirled across her shoulder blades twisted themselves down her spine, but they too were interrupted by jagged scar tissue. Averting his eyes, Dante pulled out the last silver feather. He'd finally found somone worse-off than him... and he wasn't enjoying it as he'd always thought he would.

"Triplets." Sin bit her lip and felt the scars on her lower back, running a slender finger down one that curved down her left hip. "There were three of them." She spoke over her shoulder.

From pure fascination, Dante's fingers traced the scar lightly. Shifting slightly, Sin knocked his hand away. She stood up, moving away from him,

"You should sleep." She averted her eyes to the walls, "I'll stay down here."

"Right." Dante walked up the stairs to his bedroom, for the second time that night. At his doorway he paused, looked back down the stairs and frowned.

When his head hit the pillow, the last conscious thought he had was a warning. He was definately getting too attached to this Demon...


	4. Pandemonium

Sorry guys, I've had a lot of exams lately.

I'm also working on asequal to "I hate it when you two fight", It's called "Writers Block".

Anyway, back to the story...

* * *

Dante's eyes snapped awake. Someone was moving downstairs... and it wasn't Sin. He could still sense her, but he also sensed something else. Something... stronger, though not as old. In fact, it felt familiar somehow. Almost like...

Mundus. How the fuck did he get here?

"Shit." He cursed as he rolled from the bed, hands finding Alastor in the dark of the closed room. Light was faintly shining behind the heavy curtains... but not much. He considered opening them to see better, but he realised that the gift of surprise would be a good one to keep.

He could hear Sin talking, she sounded oh-so-pissed-off. The kind of pissed off that she'd been when he'd studded her with diamonds. Pressing his back against the wall, Dante faintly remembered that he'd done that... (He looked at the green digital clock beside his bed) barely... 12 hours ago? How long had he slept?

Sword an inch from Sin's throat, the huge grey Demon still looked suspisciously like a statue. He moved slightly,

"For the sake of your own life, girl, give me the keys to Pandemonium." His voice came from deep inside the stone creature; it reverbrated inside him and made Alastor hum in Dante's hand. Dante gripped it more tightly and waited, leaning on a doorframe.

"Girl? I'm over 7 thousand years older than you are, little man."

Mundus's stone eyes narrowed and he backhanded her across the face. Dante winced at the blow Sin recieved. "The keys." Mundus growled.

"Fuck you." Sin spat, shaking the haze from her head. Mundus hit her again,

"Give me the keys."

Sin rubbed her jaw,

"Not very persuasive, you know." Catching his wrist in mid-air and twisted it, she broke his arm. Whipping the sword from his stony arm, she rammed it through him. "Like I said, you S.O.B, get fucked."

Mundus grinned,

"You think I can be stopped by your weapons?"

"No, just stalled."

Sin couldn't help but stifle a laugh as Dante blew away the look of surprise on Mundus's face into dust. The bullets chinked off the stone, chipping it and making it lightly coat the floor. The statue-Demon clutched at it's face for a moment, stumbling.

"Don't think that you can hide behind Sparda's bastard for long, Sin!" The cracked mouth spat poisonously, bits of stone falling from the gap in Mundus's face, "I know what you're doing, little angel." He spun and disappeared. Well, faded would seem more accurate.

"Too bad you can't get innoculations when travelling to Hell. It's amazing the parasites you pick up." Sin picked up her long split leather coat from the couch. It looked… slept on. Dante only then realised that he hadn't ever offered Sin a place to sleep before he disappeared upstairs.

Oh well.

"You ready?" She asked.

"For Hell?" Dante spun Alastor's hilt in his hand nonchalantly, "I was born ready."

"What the fuck," Dante began, "Is _that_ doing here?"

Sin looked up at the huge crumbling tower, stopping their walk towards the center of Hell. Curiously resembling the leaning Tower of Piza – minus the leaning – the balconies and walls showed how many battles it had lasted though.

Too many.

"The Temen-ni Gru is _always_ here." She shrugged, "It's our own kinda landmark, I suppose."

"But I destroyed it years ago."

"Well obviously it didn't work." She muttered and continued walking. Dante frowned and followed her, doubts tracking through his mind.

So many things lately just didn't add up. Why would Sin randomly kill simply to get his attention? Why not just call Devil May Cry? Why was Beelzebub missing? Why was Sin accused of his disappearance? Was there something about her past that she hadn't told him? More importantly; why was Mundus still alive? Then again, Dante thought to himself as he sidestepped a large rock, why hadn't the Temen-ni Gru been destroyed? The last time he'd seen it was when he'd first seen his brother after their parents deaths. Virgil had, of course, tried to exact revenge by teaming up with a Demon called Arkam. In the end, it had turned out that all Arkam had really wanted was to open the portal from the Seventh Circle into the Mortal Realm. If that goddamn tower was still standing that could only mean one of two things – Arkam was still alive (which he sincerely doubted) or there was another Demon, maybe more powerful this time, that was preparing to open the portal again.

But who? There was no way that his brother would have enough power to open a gateway from Hell into the Mortal realm. He was half-human, so he always had to have some flunkie or something to open the portal for him. Was it another ancient? There must have been an answer that actually made sense… and ended up in him _not_ being coaxed into a trap. Oh, yes, he had Sin to "help" him, right? There was no incentive for him to trust Sin at all whatsoever. Sure, he'd helped her take Death's pinfeathers from her spine, but there was no way that he'd sleep in the same building as her again without the door being thoroughly locked.

Guilty until proven innocent, he thought grimly to himself.

"If you were your brother," Sin interrupted the silence, stopping for a moment to the rise of a hill, "Where would you hide?"

"Being the sweet-talker that I am, I would probably surround myself with the protection of Demons more powerful than me, and haunt some old, majestic, spooky ruin just to try and scare the crap out of my brother."

There was a pause.

"You have far too much time on your hands."

"With a career like mine, sometimes that's a good thing." They reached the top of the hill, and Dante – for the first time – came face-to-face with Pandemonium.

It.

Was.

Huge.

"What happened to Pandemonium being tiny?" Dante asked Sin. She shrugged,

"Remember, Paradise Lost was written by a blind man who thought that I was still fluttering around Heaven like a Hummingbird."

"You do have a point."

The huge castle was a mirror image to the one that Dante had negotiated around on Mallet Island. Even then it had been a constant maze of corridors and stairways, with Fetishes and Marionettes waiting in the shadows to slice and dice him. Or course, for that particular challenge he'd had Trish's help…

He forced the thought out of his mind, not liking where it was going. If he could navigate his way through the Temen-ni Gru, then he could last through a catle that he'd already been in barely more than a year before. Then again, he'd – pretty much - had Lady's help. Now he had Sins'… and a rather strong feeling of deja vu.

Sin was examining the castle with admiration. It was her home, but Dante could understand why she was still probably awed with it every time she saw it. The once-detailed brickwork was rotting away, fading as the Demon that had once constructed it must be. It was covered in age-old ivy, lichen, moss and mildew. It's once magnificant stained glass windows depicted glorious scenes of Saetan in battle, slaying Angels with one fell swoop of his sword. Now they were were filled with jagged holes, like a jigsaw puzzle. Gargoyles watched over the visitors to the huge castle as well, peering maliciously down from the corvers of the walls, towers and parapets.

"Home sweet home." Sin sighed.

"You know that I said my brother would find an old, majestic, spooky ruin to try and scare the crap out of me?"

"Uh-huh." She raised an eyebrow.

"That ain't it."

"I know." She sighed, "I was thinking more towards that." She pointed at a large hillside next to Pandemonium. It was covered in rubble, but contained small openings that were held open by stone arches. It looked vaguely Celtic.

"There are thousands of underground passages under that hill." Sin explained, "It was where we lived whilst Mammon was creating Pandemonium."

"Purely curiousity; where did you land?" There must be some sort of weakness in the barriers between worlds where they landed, Dante thought to himself. If he was a manic Demon trying to take over the Mortal Realm, that would be the first place he'd try to open the portal.

You know, sometimes he marvelled at how good a bad guy he'd make.


	5. Time running out

"Over there." She jerked her head towards a large flat plain. It was completely and utterly black. Singed, but not the dirty brown-black of the pits of Tortured Souls. From this distance, it looked like it was covered in white splodges.

"What are the white marks?"

"Our purity." Sin said bitterly, "That was where our souls were bound to Hell for all eternity. We were Angels, so it stands to reason that our 'Souls-Shadows' would be white, yes?"

"God the Son was a smart-ass wasn't he?"

"Painfully so." Sin smiled grimly. A sudden thought clicked in Dante's mind.

"What happened to the souls of the Demons that have faded?" He asked.

"The white fades, like they do." She suddenly realised his point, "Oh, I get it. A Demon roll-call."

"That would help us see if Beelzebub would at least be still alive. Shall we do some sight-seeing?"

"I do think a detour is in order."

Standing in the midst of the 'shadows' was downright creepy. On the sections of black earth the air was cold, immobile and popping with energy. On the sections of white earth however, they irradiated warmth and calm. Sin's eyes shone with a deep longing as she gazed at the white form of a fallen angel.

"Demons have been driven mad here," She reached down and extended a hand towards the white silhouette. With a loud '_crack_' it sent a bolt of electricity towards her hand. Lightning fast, Sin pulled it back towards her, cradling it gently.

"Why?"

"They feel what you're feeling now."

Dante looked down at his feet. The ash-white ground glowed invitingly; somewhere inside him he didn't want to leave it – the glowing warmth… the feeling of love…

Dante stepped back onto the cold black unholy earth,

"I can see your point."

Sin leapt over the white shadows on the ground, finally reaching one and kneeling before it. Dante crossed the shadows with no difficulty and came to a stop beside her. Sin was frowning, looking back at the other shadows and the mountain as if to try and place the shadow in her mind.

"Lose something?"

"No…" She muttered, "And that's precisely the problem."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"This is the shadow of Belial." She said flatly.

Oh.

"Then he's not dead."

Leaping to her feet, she started brushing the dirt from her knees,

"That's bullshit. I saw him die."

"Maybe he was grievously wounded."

"I held him in my arms!" Sin turned and hissed, "I felt the life seep from his body." She spun and started walking towards the mountain.

"O-kay." Dante muttered to himself and followed her. On the outskirts of the giant hillside, Sin stopped and looked back,

"Lord Saetan has faded… yet I saw Lord Beelzebub and Belial's souls still bound to the earth…" She closed her eyes and rubbed her temples. "This simply can't be right!"

"Back to the Yellow Brick Road." Dante said grimly. From his side, he saw something strange happen; Sin faulted for a moment. She seemed to flicker like an old television set in the air. The she fell to her knees,

"No!"

"What?"

Sin looked fearfully up at him through her hair, red eyes full of pain,

"It's begun."

Silence.

"You're fading." It was more of a statement than a question; it was kind of obvious.

"But how?" She grasped at the earth beneath her as she flickered again, "Beelzebub and Belial…"

"…probably has an answer. We were looking for them in the first place; now we have a time limit." Dante pointed out and offered her a hand. She took it, standing up slowly. Fear was clear in her eyes,

"We _must_ find them and stop this." She whispered and continued into the dark mountainside.

Dante shook his head as he disappeared after her; a Demon afraid of death? Now he'd seen everything.


End file.
